Images of deadly tornadoes that ripped across Western Kentucky and neighboring states shocked the nation this weekend, but as many sent their thoughts and prayers, a group of female truckers set out to bring trailer after trailer of needed relief and comfort to those in need, and in doing so they remind us of what makes trucking such a noble profession.
For Shelli Conaway-Waugh, head of Trucks With Room To Spare, a driver-led nonprofit that works with other drivers to provide transportation, warehousing, and distribution of donated supplies for communities in the wake of disasters, this tornado fell in her own backyard. A Kentucky native, Conaway-Waugh has sent supplies all over the country and even abroad to places like the Bahamas and Haiti.
She sees her nonprofit work as not just a way to help those in need, but as a way to stand up for the values of the trucking community.
"Drivers have such a bad rap," she said. "We’re pictured as uncaring and cold and killers. This gives us a chance to meet the people that we actually help. This is something that we normally don’t get to do in our day to day. What you put out is what you get back. You pay tithes at church, you give money to someone on the streets for food. In this manner, one truckload of supplies can help a whole community."
Drivers with Trucks With Room To Spare often interact directly with the people they're helping.
In the trucking business, it's easy to get tied up with the drudgery of the day-to-day work of hunting for good rates, good freight, and parking at the end of the driving day. But speaking to Conaway-Waugh revealed a trucking dimension too often missed: The human element.
"They're finished with the search and rescue and they’re currently working on debris removal and cleanup and trying to get people the supplies that they need," she said of relief efforts under way following the storms, which that killed 75 in Kentucky, 12 of them children.
